There are many decommissioning challenges remaining across the site at Sellafield where the use of remote technology is likely to be beneficial or even fundamental to successful delivery due to access constraints largely relating to radiological dose.

Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have been slow to embrace dust collection for the majority of these tools despite heavy pressure from Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulators. It is only with the recent addition of another layer of enforcement, the Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) rule, that the major tool manufacturers have begun to offer effective dust collection for their tools. These dust collectors vary in efficiency and ease of use, and add to the cost of the tool. Contractors must weigh the cost of the add-on against potential fines and the moral obligation to protect the worker’s health.

High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters remove radioactive particles from the air and are used by the nuclear industry as an engineered control. The HEPA filters can be flexible and heat sealed into waste bags, 2 – 40 CFM filters used in respirators or glove bags, or larger filters mounted in ventilation systems. When mounted in a ventilation system, they capture airborne particles before they are spread or reach a worker’s breathing zone. Unfortunately, the use of HEPA filtered ventilation is not well understood. Most workers have had little or no training on how to use ventilation to capture airborne particles.

Quite recently, I was taken aback when somebody asked me about the energy (e.g. Mwh or Petajoules, PJ) spent to demolish a NPP, and the innuendo was that the decommissioning-related energy could be comparable with the construction of the same NPP, and even to the energy generated by that plant. I must admit I had no answer to offer on the spot. And yet, I realized soon that this is an argument used at times by the anti-nuclear groups. Was this really a loaded question? I decided to launch an enquiry among my colleagues and friends and I am glad to share the results with you.

Visit the NDR Buyers Guide to access hundreds of companies doing business in the Nuclear Decommissioning Industry. Read descriptions of companies’ offerings, get contact info and more at www.buyersguide.ndreport.com.

For almost two decades, innovative and sustainable flexible packaging has been developed and utilized in the United States, designed specifically for LLW and other hazardous wastes with over 25,000 flexible containers safely deployed across the US nuclear industry.

The 60MWt Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) at NASA’s Plum Brook Facility (PBRF) operated from 1962 to 1973 with full power operations totaling 98,000 MW-days. Between August 2003 and February 2005, a 9-foot (2.7m) x 31-foot (9.4m) tall PWR and the Reactor Vessel Internals (RVI) were disassembled and packaged for removal from the site in Sandusky, Ohio, US.

Tearing down the huge Manhattan Project facilities at the former K-25 site, now known as the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) Heritage Center, and disposal of the hazardous and radioactive waste generated by their demolition pose some of the most complex environmental remediation challenges in the Department of Energy (DOE) complex.